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REPORT ON THE ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT THE SITE OF THE FORMER NAZI EXTERMINATION CAMP IN BELZEC, POLAND, 1997-98 Michael Tregenza I J -J -J -J -J -J -J -J LUBLIN 1998 ,J 3 - CONTENTS Historical Introduction 5 Introduction to the Investigations 12 Investigation from 12·25 October 1997 I Method of Investigation 12 II LocationlInvestigation of Mass Graves 13 III Positive Soundings: Camp Structures 15 IV Archeological Investigations at the Ramp 15 V Investigations with an Electronic Metal Detector 16 Investigation from 27 April- 7 June 1998 VI Location/Investigation of Mass Graves 17 VII Investigations with an Electronic Metal Detector 19 VIII Positive Soundings: Camp StruclUres 19 IX Archeological Excavations: Object 'A' 20 Object 'B' 21 Object 'C' 23 X Traces of Camp Structures: 1. Within the Memorial Area 24 2. Forester's Field N of Entrance Gate 24 3. Land Around Forester's Cottage and Outbuildings 24 4. Forest E of Memorial Area 25 5. Area of the Sawmill 25 6. E of the Memorial Area 25 XI Conclusions 25 XII Future Invesligalions: 28 a) Main Gale 29 b) First Gassing lnslallalion 29 c) Second Gassing lnstallalion 29 d) 'die Sell/elise' 29 e) Cremation Pyres 29 Acknowledgements Maps and Plans I I 5 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION Selzec village is situated in a remote area of pine, fir and silver birch forests in the far SE corner of Poland, on the main highway between the cities of Lublin in Poland and Lvov in the Ukraine. The Ukrainian border at Hrebenna is only 17 km. to the SE,l Construction of Ihe extermination camp began on I ovember 1941 on a2andy. wooded slope on the outskirts of Ihc village, 500 m. SE of Selzec railway station. Local labour under 55-supervision cleared an area of 255 m. x 250 m. on the slope and began the construction of wooden barracks, one of which was to contain gas chambers.2 The N boundary of the camp was formed by a massive German anti-tank ditch and earth rampart which had been constructed by Jewish forced labour in 1940 as pan of the German·Soviet demarcation line. The main Lublin-Lvov railway formed the 5 boundary, while to the E it was limited by Ihe foresled ridge al the top of the slope. Beyond the ridge, a steep, forested escarpment descended 10 the country road to the nearby hamlet of Szalenik. Beyond the road, to the E, stretched a dense forest which also extended around and beyond the 5 end of the camp. The perimeter of the camp was surrounded by a double fence of barbed wire and wire netting - Ihe OUler fence camouflaged with greenery, and a second camouflaged barrier was erected at (he foot of the E escarpment and in the forest to the 5. Originally. one watchtower was erected near the centre of the camp and three others at the comers, with the exception of the NW comer next to the camounaged gate. At this point a railway siding from the Lublin-Lvov line entered the camp and ran along the foot of the slope; inside the camp the siding divided into two parallel tracks, of which only the one to the E was initially utilized. The local work force was dismissed on 22 December 1941 on the arrival from German) of the first camp commandant, S$-Obersturmftihrer/Kriminalkommissar Christian WIrth. a career police officer from the Stuttgart detective squads, who accompanied the first group of about \0 55-guards.) Thirty-one men were eventually to serve in the camp, with about half that number present at a time, reinforced by over 100 renegade Soviet POWs , mainly Ukrainians. in the pay of the 55.4 Construction of the camp was completed in the New Year by the Soviet guards and a group of 100-150 Jews rounded up in nearby towns and villages. The Jews completed the construction of the first gassing installation, a small wooden barrack built on an N - 5 axis I In 1942, Belzec was in Ihe Lublin Dislrict, one of five SS-adminislered DistriCIS which comprised thast part of Poland not annexed to the Reich or occupied by the Soviet Union. After the war, Beluc continued LO be in the Lublin Voivodship until 1975 when it eame under the adminiSlration of Zamosc Voivodship. ! Measurements specified in the Report of the Polish War Crimes Commission of Ihe Zamosc Disirici Court. daled 11 April 1946. Okregowa Komisja Badania Zbrodni Pn.eciwko Narodowi Polskiemol Inslytul Paml(ci Narodowej. Lublin (hereafter OKBZ). file No.: Os. 1604/45· Zamosc. In 1947 the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. based in Warsaw, amended the dimensions 10 275 m x 263 m. published in Main Commission Bulletin No.3. pp. 29-45: 'Oboz zaglady w BeI7.cu·. Warsaw 1947. In the prosecution documents against forrrl<::r member of the camp staff, Werner Dubois. who served in Belzee from April 1942 . May 1943. the dimenSIons of Ihe camp are given as 250 m. x 200 m. District Court. Munich I. lile - No.: 22 Js 68161: The Case Againsl Werner Karl Dubois. J The firsl group of camp guards came: from the psychialric inslilulion at Bernburg, 140 km SW of Berlin. where they had panicip3ted in the gassing of German menial patients. Bernburg was one of SIX such kllhng cCnlres which operated from February 1940 - Augusl 1941 and in which over 70,000 patients were killed under - the code designation '1'4'. Since June 1940. Wirth had been 'roving inspeclor of Ihe killing ccrmcs. 4 The Soviet roWs were recruited for service with the SS from Stalags 319 and 325 in the cily ofChelm. 60 km E of Lublin. and trained in a special SS camp at Trawniki in the Lublin Districi. From there they \\cre - sdecloo by Wirth for duty in Belzcc. 1be platoon leaders were Soviel VolksdeulSChe (ethnic Germans) who \\cre bi-hgual in Russian and German. The aUlhor has a list of 104 such Soviet troops who served in Belzec. ..J 6 ncar the main gate. The gassing barrack was raised on concrete foundalions and entry was via a single door on the S side, fronted by three steps. Inside, the barrack contained three zinc lined chambers, each one measuring 6 m x 4 m., and entered from a corridor inside the entry door. At the opposite end, three exit doors opened onto an unloading platform contruclcd of wooden planks, that ran the length of the building. All six doors to the chambers were hermetically sealed and fastened shut by heavy wooden locking bars.s The Jews who completed the construction of the camp became its first victims. They were gassed in onc of the chambers with Zyklon S, a hydrocyanic acid based pesticide issued to all German military units in the field, which since the war has become synonymous with extermination in Nazi camps. • Further test gassings using Zyklon B were carried out on several small transports of Jews from the transit ghettos at lzbica and Piaski on the Belzec - Lublin road. A second series of tests was run using carbon monoxide (CO) gas from steel cylinders connected to a system of pipes installed in the chambers. [ In mid-March, the exhausts of a Soviet tank engine were connected to the pipe system and the first full-scale gassing of Jews using engine exhaust fumes as the means of killing was carried out on two transports on 15 March.6 Regular gassings in the Belzec camp began on 17 March, the victims were Jews from the ghettos of Lublin and Lvov and the transit ghettos al lzbica and Trawniki - men, women and children. the old sick and infirm - all those classified by the 55 as unfit for work. They arrived at Belzec station in sealed railway freight wagons which were shunted in batches onto the siding in the camp. There the Jews were unloaded, deposited their luggage in specified places in the assembly rard, and directed in groups into an undressing barracks. men, women and children together The old, sick and infirm who were incapable of proceeding alone were left lying on the ground at the siding. From the undressing barrack a short. covered passageway led directly to the gassing barrack which had a capacity of about 1.500 people. This number included a high percentage of children.s Once the three chambers were full and the doors locked, the engine exhaust fumes were pumped-in for about 30 minutes, after which the corpses were removed via the unloading ramp and piled into a line of dump trucks on a narrow gauge railway that led to mass graves along the N fence. The unloading of the chambers and burying of the corpses was undertaken [ by a team of Jewish males selected from the transports. } Dimensions are from the Repon of The War Crimes In\'utigation Commission of the Z:unosc District Coon in: OKBZ file No.: Os. 1604/45 - Zamosc. Details of the construction of the gassing barrack in: ibid.. statement by Stanislaw Kozak. 14 October 1945/Belzec. Kozak panicipated in the construction of the barrack. o The engine came from a Soviet T-34 or KV-I tank, both of which used the same type of engine. It was placed in a pit about 30 m. from the gassing barrack as these engines were notorious for leaking fuel. and connected to the gas chambers by an underground pipe. (Fig. 7). [ 1 According to former SS-Scharflihrer Erich Fuchs. who was on dUly ncar the door of the gassing barrack dunng the first few gassings, the Jews were divided into groups of 50 - 80 people.